Archive for August, 2015

I was in about my second week at Microsoft when Windows 95 officially launched. It was a big deal on the corporate campus with Jay Leno MCing the event. It seems like just a few days ago and then again it seems like eons in the past. Our two decades in Washington have passed ever so quickly.

We had bear incursions Monday andTuesday nights and again around 4:00 a.m. this morning. What a shock, however, to see this largish black bear on our patio just a few minutes ago. Worse, he seems totally fearless. First, I pounded on the windows… to no effect. In fact, he approached the sliding door and looked right at me through the glass. I had fortunately closed the screen portion only thirty minutes ago. He backed off, snatched one of the bird feeders and started to chow down. I banged pots together and shouted at him. No effect. I threw my shoes at him. Unimpressed. Finally, I beaned him with a rock and he ambled away, through the portion of our fence that he tore down to get in.

After a ho-hum 86 on Saturday I wasn’t very inspired to play a second round today. And after pulling each of my first two tee shots well left, my enthusiasm wavered even more. Still, I scrambled like crazy for a 41 over the front nine and realized I was just two shots from the lead in my division. However, the dreaded left-pull hit me again and again on the back nine and I suffered through five penalty strokes, limping in with a back nine of 55: the worst nine-hole score on Mt. Si since the very first round I ever played.

We spent our anniversary in Whistler, BC, riding up and down Whistler and Blackcomb mountains, enjoying the spa and having a terrific dinner and dessert. A pretty decadent day. Here we are 1400 feet up on the Peak-to-Peak Gondola.